Projects built lots of cars, but never a 32 roadster...

I've never created a build thread before, but figured it was time to. If this is not the correct place to do so, please let me know and I will move.

I built a 1932 Ford 3 window coupe almost 20 years ago. I built the chassis with Squeak Bell of Kiwi connection. I customize the front spring cross member by flattening the front of it out so that we could push the front axle center line almost an inch forward of where it is typically located. The axle is mounted with 37 Ford split wishbones.
In 2004, I moved from Los Angeles to Northeast Pennsylvania and ended up selling the unfinished car to a guy in Arizona.
In October of 2020, I got a correspondence from the guy I sold it to asking if I wanted to buy the rolling chassis back (he only used the deuce customs fiberglass body and the drivetrain). I always kicked myself in the ass for selling it, so I jumped on the opportunity to buy it back and had it shipped to New Hampshire where I currently live.
I figured that this time I would build it as a roadster to save work and money - the three window coops windows and interior overwhelmed me and that's why I never finished the project.
In June of this year, I went to the NSRA event in York Pennsylvania and picked up a roadster body that I had ordered from Brookville.
Though I've built many cars in the past, I've never dealt with an original STYLE reproduction steel body and much of this is very new and foreign to me. Many of you guys may have seen naive questions regarding body to frame whole alignment and windshield frame selection and I think everyone for their input!
So, I just got many of the bolt holes elongated last night and finally got the body bolted down to the frame -The firewall fits pretty good and I'm getting ready to weld the feet to the front of the firewall now that the body is firmly mounted. As you may have seen in one of my posts, I have an issue in the back where my frame rails droop too far down, so there's a 1-in gap between the gas tank and the back of the tail pan. My next step is to remove the body and fix that by pie cutting the frame rails. That's where I'm at with everything and this starts my build thread...

 

Some photos...

 

Looks good, look forward to seeing the progress.

 

I'm hoping that this build thread will help me keep up my momentum.
When I put the radiator and grill shell on the other night, boom! It started to look like a 32 Ford - That combined with the headlights really gives it a face.
I do have to say though that the way the radiators are mounted in those is bizarre, but makes total sense from a practicality standpoint

 

Its going to look nice when done!

 

Hurry up, already! Good luck.

 

You're basically almost done.

 

The body 1 inch from the fuel tank seems normal, to me.

 

Need any '32 frame & roadster body blueprints? ---I sell them on the HAMB.

 

No thanks, I think I have everything pretty straightened out

 

I've debated on whether or not to leave it like that... The thing that I really don't like about it is the gap between the tail lights and the body. When I had the fiberglass body on there they were tucked up real nice under the tailpan.
I think I'm going to go ahead and do some surgery on those rear frame rails to raise them up, along with the gas tank and spreader bar

 

Looking really good! But I wouldn't refer to a Brockville body as an "original" steel body... the Originality Protective Services will show up! LOL

 

So my son acted like a 10-year-old tonight and forgot his hockey jersey, so we turned around and came home. That gave me some time to work on the car tonight.

I started whacking away on my junkyard purchased S10 seat. I'm following a dimensioned photo I found from Glide engineering as a guide. The seat is 46 and 3/4 in wide at its widest point, so I have to flatten, narrow and taper the sides of the seat bottom first. I cut the bottom frame apart pie cut the heck out of the bins to straighten them out. I'll straighten the other one tomorrow then weld everything up.

 

Thanks, I amended my languaging in my beginning post.

 

The car is looking good. Plus it looks like it is going to be a lot of fun to drive.

 

It’ll be a cool build! Glad you got the body mounted. I would for sure bring the tank closer to the body, it really isn’t much work to correct.

 

Nice looking project brothah!!

 

Thank for all the kind words and encouragement from everyone!

I got one side of the S10 seat all straightened out. It's nice to wack away at something that just needs to be straight and not have sharp edges (No need to consider how it looks)....

View attachment 5201539

 

Duex...



Total time invested to this point including disassembly and fabrication - 3 hours.
I think straightening these two end pieces is the most intensive part of the whole modification process.

 

God was watching over and I was able to get a used 2-inch windshield assembly for the car - A super cool guy on the HAMB sent me a message that he had one, so I went and picked it up yesterday.
As soon as I got it on the car, my 10-year-old son says, "now it looks like a real car"
I'm planning on elongating the lower hole to lay the windshield back at least one inch, possibly two...

 

Glad to see you started a build thread. The windshield looks nice. I'm subscribing to this thread.

 

Looking forward to seeing some pics when you lay that windshield back…makes ‘em look like they are going a hundred miles an hour sitting still!

 

I flattened the front spring -mounting crossmember and moved it forward an inch. It's literally flat up against the splash apron on the grill shell. Moving the front axle centerline forward by just one inch, with respect to the grille shell made a huge difference - also makes it look like it's going 100 sitting still. Hoping the laid back windshield further enhances that look.

 

Too vertical of a windshield on a Deuce sticks out like dog balls! Bravo, glad you are laying it back an inch or two.

 

I don't recall any mention of the hood you plan on using but Rootlieb has a one inch longer than stock hood available, that's what mine has, surprising what an extra inch will get you for fan and distributor clearance.

 

The radiator and grill shell still goes in the same spot with respect to the body. The cross member moved forward, but the radiator mounting holes also moved backward. The point was to get the front facial center line move forward with respect to the grill shell.
I've ordered a stock length Rootlieb Hood top with two rows of louvers on each side. Once I get that on there, I'll template for hood sides.

 

Sorry for jumping ahead and not taking pictures step by step, But I got the S10 seat frame all done last night. After measuring measuring and a trial fitting, I decided not to go with the Glide engineering seat dimensions. I prefer the look of a square seat, like the one in this article
https://garage.eastwood.com/eastwood-chatter/channeled-bench-seat-1/
So I made the seat a little over 42" wide, top and bottom, front to back. I put the stock S10 seat tracks underneath. I have a little finish welding to do and I have to install the wires on the bottom told the phone, but it's almost done. Total cost of this- $65 (including foam and a seat cover to use as a pattern). The photo at the bottom is of the remnants.

 

My son says it now looks like a car because we got a windshield
I finally got those pesky cowl feet mounted yesterday and started working on the brake pedal placement...

 

I got a steering column and a wheel... Getting ready to pull the firewall back out and figure out the placement.
As I mentioned, I built a car on this chassis almost 20 years ago as a three-window coupe with a fiberglass body... To get that steering column and wheel in a nice spot, I had to jog (cut and paste) the brake pedal over to the right quite a bit to get it to be on the right hand side of the steering column.
It looks like in this iteration (Brookville roadster steel roadster body), there's not going to be enough room to the right of the brake pedal for my gas pedal... Maybe I'll have to do some more modification to the brake pedal, or order a new one from Kiwi connection and start from scratch?
It would be great if some of you guys could send me the dimension you can have from your door over to the center line of the steering column (Just under the dash). This will help me get an idea of where to start with the steering comp placement and I'd be able to tell I'll screwed up I am on that brake pedal arm...

 

By the way, that's a $340 Speedway motors 30-in stainless steering column with turn signal built in... That's their 15" 1940 steering wheel (They sell it and Speedway brand, but it came in a vintique box). At $319, it's an exceptional value - very nice fit and finish and requires no spacer or adapter to go on that column.